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The Grenadier slightly piqued my interest so I rented one on a family trip and put on 1,000 miles. Flew into SFO, so had it in San Fran, Yosemite and Monterrey/Big Sur.
Thought I would share some thoughts. I didn’t take it off road unfortunately but this is more around everyday use -
I liked it, not as much as I thought I would. If it were strictly driven by me and me alone that’s one thing, but it was pretty flawed/compromised for everyday driving / family passengers. The steering and turning radius is lacking for around town driving. I think this has been improved slightly for the 2026, mine was a 2025.
The steering doesn’t really snap back to center and takes a bit getting used to. You need to manually turn back to center when coming out of turns. It feels weighty which is nice but there’s a lot of input needed. I got used to it but my wife pretty much hated the feel of it.
The turning radius is probably one of the worst of a recently manufactured vehicle for this size, and is the primary common complaint. Lots of corrections are needed around a parking lot. Especially tight lots - Turning into spaces flanked by occupied spots usually required a 3 point turn which is a bit crazy. Or for example, pulling out of a parking lot aisle with someone passing, you would need to completely stop and wait to have enough room to turn. There were a few awkward moments of others seeing you stop, then they stop and wave you on, and you roll down your window to explain that they need to move or reverse because your unable to make the turn without hitting them. They just don’t expect you to have the turning radius of a semi truck when you’re in a defender looking suv.
in general I would say just…finicky…My wife and kids were successful about 50% of the time to fully close the doors. And sometimes the car would throw itself into park when reversing out of a spot, to the point you think you hit something, but it was really because a door wasn’t 100% shut with a thud. It could have also been provoked by seatbelts not being buckled but I doubt it - pretty sure it was the doors. This happened a bunch.
constant rear rattle. Seemingly the tailgate or ladder.
No passive entry for the locks or push button Start. Which after unpacking and repacking a car full of luggage every couple days was noticeably a bit annoying putting down arms full of stuff to pull out the key and unlock the vehicle. One of those features you get accustomed to with modern cars that becomes obvious when it’s not there. The sticker on mine was 83k BTW.
no rear window lockouts for kids. Probably no big deal for most, but dealing with a toddler in the backseat constantly not listening and messing with the windows got old quick. Seems trivial, but when driving around the Big Sur wildfires, and trying to keep out the smoke it actually was an issue - pulling over multiple times arguing etc, for something that could so simply be resolved with a feature every other vehicle has. Or my toddler opening up the window while exiting the car (happened often given the allure, since we’ve always had the lockout feature) then you walk around, take out the key (since it doesn’t have keyless) turn back on the car and roll up the window. You forgive these things because it’s a pretty cool truck, but also think why am I dealing with this in 2026 on a 83k vehicle. It’s not even an option. And they figured this tech out 30 yrs ago.
some technical issues. Like an off road mode flashing error on the screen that stayed on for a couple hours.
Everything else (minus the price) was to the positive. Huge cargo, very nice seats. I loved every second of the airplane cockpit and safari windows. If it I wasn’t using it for family use I probably would have enjoyed it more. Also I think the 2026 improved the turning radius some (5%), and the steering feel a bit.
some pics
Thought I would share some thoughts. I didn’t take it off road unfortunately but this is more around everyday use -
I liked it, not as much as I thought I would. If it were strictly driven by me and me alone that’s one thing, but it was pretty flawed/compromised for everyday driving / family passengers. The steering and turning radius is lacking for around town driving. I think this has been improved slightly for the 2026, mine was a 2025.
The steering doesn’t really snap back to center and takes a bit getting used to. You need to manually turn back to center when coming out of turns. It feels weighty which is nice but there’s a lot of input needed. I got used to it but my wife pretty much hated the feel of it.
The turning radius is probably one of the worst of a recently manufactured vehicle for this size, and is the primary common complaint. Lots of corrections are needed around a parking lot. Especially tight lots - Turning into spaces flanked by occupied spots usually required a 3 point turn which is a bit crazy. Or for example, pulling out of a parking lot aisle with someone passing, you would need to completely stop and wait to have enough room to turn. There were a few awkward moments of others seeing you stop, then they stop and wave you on, and you roll down your window to explain that they need to move or reverse because your unable to make the turn without hitting them. They just don’t expect you to have the turning radius of a semi truck when you’re in a defender looking suv.
in general I would say just…finicky…My wife and kids were successful about 50% of the time to fully close the doors. And sometimes the car would throw itself into park when reversing out of a spot, to the point you think you hit something, but it was really because a door wasn’t 100% shut with a thud. It could have also been provoked by seatbelts not being buckled but I doubt it - pretty sure it was the doors. This happened a bunch.
constant rear rattle. Seemingly the tailgate or ladder.
No passive entry for the locks or push button Start. Which after unpacking and repacking a car full of luggage every couple days was noticeably a bit annoying putting down arms full of stuff to pull out the key and unlock the vehicle. One of those features you get accustomed to with modern cars that becomes obvious when it’s not there. The sticker on mine was 83k BTW.
no rear window lockouts for kids. Probably no big deal for most, but dealing with a toddler in the backseat constantly not listening and messing with the windows got old quick. Seems trivial, but when driving around the Big Sur wildfires, and trying to keep out the smoke it actually was an issue - pulling over multiple times arguing etc, for something that could so simply be resolved with a feature every other vehicle has. Or my toddler opening up the window while exiting the car (happened often given the allure, since we’ve always had the lockout feature) then you walk around, take out the key (since it doesn’t have keyless) turn back on the car and roll up the window. You forgive these things because it’s a pretty cool truck, but also think why am I dealing with this in 2026 on a 83k vehicle. It’s not even an option. And they figured this tech out 30 yrs ago.
some technical issues. Like an off road mode flashing error on the screen that stayed on for a couple hours.
Everything else (minus the price) was to the positive. Huge cargo, very nice seats. I loved every second of the airplane cockpit and safari windows. If it I wasn’t using it for family use I probably would have enjoyed it more. Also I think the 2026 improved the turning radius some (5%), and the steering feel a bit.
some pics
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